The Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) would have "serious concerns" if Government were to approve a deal to ship asbestos waste to Cuba.

UBP Leader Grant Gibbons said yesterday that any such proposal involving Cuba raises diplomatic, moral, ethical and commercial issues.

"Clearly one of the moral issues here is about not exploiting the Cuban people because we are talking about a dictatorship and there have been enough examples of human rights violations," he said. Responding to this week's report of a proposal by Island Construction Services (ICS) to have the Island's asbestos waste shipped off to the Caribbean nation, Dr. Gibbons would not say outright that his party would oppose the deal.

ICS, a local company, says that it has structured a deal to ship close to 300 containers of domestically produced asbestos waste to Cuba which includes indemnifying Bermuda should anything go awry once the killer substance leaves the Island. Asked if his party would support such a proposal if it also saves the taxpayer millions of dollars and brings commercial benefit to the Island, Dr. Gibbons said that he could not answer the question without knowing all the details.

"But it's fair to say that there are a number of issues involved - there are diplomatic issues, there are moral and ethical issues, and there are commercial issues as well.

"So while we don't know all the details of this proposal I think we do know that there's no free lunch," he said.

"Most countries in the world don't accept industrial waste from other countries. And there are, I believe, international protocols, specifically about shipping waste from developed countries to developing and undeveloped countries."

He added : "There clearly is a commercial interest and as we've said before we don't have a problem with local businesses being involved in business arrangements with Cuba which has been going on for some time now. And in this case I certainly can't blame a local entrepreneur for seeking out an opportunity, but I believe that the Bermuda Government has a much broader responsibility here to consider all the issues and look into this particular proposal carefully and consider it against the other possibilities for dealing with asbestos waste."

He suggested that Government was not revealing all about its relationship with Cuba. Bermuda recently signed a cultural exchange agreement with Cuba over the UBP's strenuous objections. "From a diplomatic perspective I think we are all beginning to suspect that the PLP Government's relationship with Cuba is further advanced than any of us can imagine and it's not limited to only cultural affairs," Dr. Gibbons continued.

"I wouldn't be surprised if what we've been told publicly about the relationship with Cuba, particularly with cultural affairs barely scratches the surface."

He reiterated his party's position on a formal relationship with Cuba saying that they did not believe it served Bermuda's long term interests and does not help the Island's relationship with the United States.

"We've had no satisfactory explanation as to how the Cuban relationship can really benefit Bermuda in the long term," the Opposition Leader said.

He said Premier Alex Scott's administration was little different from that of former Premier Jennifer Smith's administration as far as transparency was concerned. "In terms of releasing the details and coming clean - we've seen a lot of lip service but that's it."

Asked if he expects Government to divulge details of private proposals to dispose of asbestos, he said :"What I would expect is that the public would be given a good indication of what the current methods for safely dealing with asbestos waste and what the cost to the taxpayer is likely to be.

"And instead what we've seen is a lot of spin about whether the UK should be responsible. I think what we really need here is for government to get on with a thorough examination of the options and then to address both the US base asbestos and also our own domestic asbestos waste."

Britain has agreed to pay for the costs of a comprehensive study of the asbestos issue and a search for the consultants is now on. Government has said it won't make any decision about asbestos disposal until the review is complete.

One of the options is to ship the toxic waste of the Island but a key concern is Bermuda's potential liability should anything go wrong and it becomes a health crisis in another country.

Dr. Gibbons expressed some doubt as to whether an indemnification agreement with the current government in Cuba would stand if the political situation there changes.

"Liability would be a key issue in the sense of ongoing responsibility and possible future costs to the taxpayer," he said.

"But you and I both know that liability may not be as strong an issue as far as Cuba is concerned under the current government, as it would be in the United States. And if the government would change in Cuba there could well be an accusation that Bermuda took advantage of the Cuban people knowing that there was a totalitarian government in place."